Bill O'Reilly: Pompous Ass
There comes upon occasion, an obligation to take to task one of our, (in my opinion) far too many, self-important talking heads to task when their egos allow them to stray from simple arrogance to condescension.
Last night, the usually boorishly bloviating Bill O'Reilly over stepped the bounds of what is generally classified as simple, ill-informed arrogance into the realm of pure unfettered elitism.
After spending considerable air-time and energy discussing the inevitable revelation by Liberal darling and presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, that he is nothing more than a typical Left-wing elitist and Marxist on his own program, the egregious Bill O'Reilly appeared on Greta van Susteren's program, whereupon he provided a closer glimpse into his own elitist world view.
Mr. O'Reilly, being confronted with Ms. van Susteren's innate Liberal desire to explain away, or otherwise excuse Candidate Obama's elitist revelation of contempt for all in which the American people believe, fell back into his own elitist nature by confiding to Greta that, (paraphrasing here) “Of course people like us have the intellect and curiosity to delve into what Barack Obama said and discover his "true meaning," but those morons out there in the voting public lack that intellectual capacity to understand nuanced speech and hear only that people are bitter and clinging to their guns and religion because the economy is bad.”
Here is a transcript of the relevant portion of Bill O’s appearance on Greta van Susteren’s program:
Now, I know that Bill O'Reilly has always been a pompous ass, even his television program's subtitle; "The No Spin Zone" exposes his over-inflated opinion of himself. True to his claim, when confronted with any guest of sufficiently low social status that he feels comfortable in bombasting them with his "Holier than thou" attitude, he will leap to confront and expose them in their efforts to "spin" a story, but anytime Bill O. Is facing a guest that meets his twisted definition of an intellectual equal (although, in truth he doesn't believe anyone approaches that standard) or any guest of sufficient celebrity status, Bill O'Reilly suddenly becomes meek as a kitten and switches from being Fox News' Thomas de Torquemada to to becoming Uriah Heep, hoping to ingratiate himself with his celebrity guests.
Like many in the entertainment field, "The Mighty Bill O'Reilly" will never confront anyone of genuine celebrity status, no matter how absurd and contemptible their claims. Perhaps it is because he knows if he alienates them, they will refuse to appear on his television and his ratings will be adversely affected, or perhaps it is just an innate desire to "be one of the crowd."
Hence this Lion of the television talk-show world is quite often bearded in his own den. By refusing to confront Liberal luminaries directly and forcefully, O'Reilly betrays not only his elitism (spawned from his overwhelming desire to be seen as one of the celebrated) but his loyal audience.
There have been numerous occasions upon which I have previously salivated at an upcoming appearance of some hypocritical Liberal luminary on Bill O'Reilly's program, only to be disappointed as his normally ferocious defense of American mores and customs declines into a sycophantic effort to cajole and humor his celebrity guest.
Having been disappointed upon so many occasions, I now no longer look to Bill O'Reilly to "ask the tough question," as he claims to do when his guests are his Liberal "buddies" like Charlie Rangel, Reverend Al Sharpton, Bill Maher, or the like.
I no longer eagerly anticipate any "heroic verbal duals" when big named Left-wing celebrities come on his program, I expect what I see, a "civil" discourse, in which none of the most controversial topics come to be discussed, or if they are, that there will be little of that confrontational positing for which O'Reilly's is famous and to which his less well known guests are subjected.
O'Reilly's intolerance for "spin" evaporates and is replaced with a sort of cordial "agree to disagree" accord.
Afterall, the Great Bill O'Reilly can't afford to alienate the big-named guests who generate his high ratings...I mean ratings is what his program is all about.
Hey Bill! Here's a clue...Barack Obama is a Harvard educated lawyer. He knew what he was saying, he didn't "misspeak, this wasn't a simple slip of the tongue, it was an intentional statement, carefully considered, directed to a select audience, intended to elicit a desired reaction.
The only problem here is that his carefully considered and chosen words were recorded and leaked to the press. We know he believed in what he said, because he reaffirmed his belief in his first feckless defense of his statements. His claims of confused understanding and misinterpretation came only after that first bold claim of affirmation occurred...and bombed.
There can be no doubt as to what Barack Hussein Obama intended to say, we have his own words...and as we now know..."words do matter."
Long Live Our American Republic!!!
Last night, the usually boorishly bloviating Bill O'Reilly over stepped the bounds of what is generally classified as simple, ill-informed arrogance into the realm of pure unfettered elitism.
After spending considerable air-time and energy discussing the inevitable revelation by Liberal darling and presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, that he is nothing more than a typical Left-wing elitist and Marxist on his own program, the egregious Bill O'Reilly appeared on Greta van Susteren's program, whereupon he provided a closer glimpse into his own elitist world view.
Mr. O'Reilly, being confronted with Ms. van Susteren's innate Liberal desire to explain away, or otherwise excuse Candidate Obama's elitist revelation of contempt for all in which the American people believe, fell back into his own elitist nature by confiding to Greta that, (paraphrasing here) “Of course people like us have the intellect and curiosity to delve into what Barack Obama said and discover his "true meaning," but those morons out there in the voting public lack that intellectual capacity to understand nuanced speech and hear only that people are bitter and clinging to their guns and religion because the economy is bad.”
Here is a transcript of the relevant portion of Bill O’s appearance on Greta van Susteren’s program:
Van Susteren: “But how do we know though? How does a voter know if he really meant that or if it was just a slip?”Mr. O'Reilly is a "comi-tragic" figure in this because he fails to see his own pomposity even as he denigrates his viewers, the American voters.
O’Reilly: “But the voters don’t care Greta.”
Van Susteren: “I know but it does make a difference, it does make a difference if it was just a poorly phrased something or whether or not he really meant it.”
Bill O’Reilly: (talking over) “To you and I Greta.
To you and I it makes a difference, to you and me it makes a difference, whatever is grammatically correct… “
Greta van Susteren: Me.
Bill O’Reilly: “Okay. And I, and I respect that about you, and I do it too. I want to know what he meant, I want to know what the (garbled fade out)...but the casual person watching three hours of American Idol every week, just hearing stuff in the wind, Greta, they’re not interested in psychoanalyzing Barack Obama.
They know that he's got a nutty preacher friend; they know that his wife said something controversial, and now they know for some reason he dragged guns and church into an economic debate.
Greta, come on, this is the President (sic) race, and people are just going to go "Aaa!.”
Greta van Susteren: (talking over) “But it doesn't matter. I mean in some ways it sounds like you are dismissive of it and maybe it doesn't matter, but do they matter...”
Bill O'Reilly: (talking over) “Of course it matters, like I just said, He just handed Pennsylvania to Clinton...”
Now, I know that Bill O'Reilly has always been a pompous ass, even his television program's subtitle; "The No Spin Zone" exposes his over-inflated opinion of himself. True to his claim, when confronted with any guest of sufficiently low social status that he feels comfortable in bombasting them with his "Holier than thou" attitude, he will leap to confront and expose them in their efforts to "spin" a story, but anytime Bill O. Is facing a guest that meets his twisted definition of an intellectual equal (although, in truth he doesn't believe anyone approaches that standard) or any guest of sufficient celebrity status, Bill O'Reilly suddenly becomes meek as a kitten and switches from being Fox News' Thomas de Torquemada to to becoming Uriah Heep, hoping to ingratiate himself with his celebrity guests.
Like many in the entertainment field, "The Mighty Bill O'Reilly" will never confront anyone of genuine celebrity status, no matter how absurd and contemptible their claims. Perhaps it is because he knows if he alienates them, they will refuse to appear on his television and his ratings will be adversely affected, or perhaps it is just an innate desire to "be one of the crowd."
Hence this Lion of the television talk-show world is quite often bearded in his own den. By refusing to confront Liberal luminaries directly and forcefully, O'Reilly betrays not only his elitism (spawned from his overwhelming desire to be seen as one of the celebrated) but his loyal audience.
There have been numerous occasions upon which I have previously salivated at an upcoming appearance of some hypocritical Liberal luminary on Bill O'Reilly's program, only to be disappointed as his normally ferocious defense of American mores and customs declines into a sycophantic effort to cajole and humor his celebrity guest.
Having been disappointed upon so many occasions, I now no longer look to Bill O'Reilly to "ask the tough question," as he claims to do when his guests are his Liberal "buddies" like Charlie Rangel, Reverend Al Sharpton, Bill Maher, or the like.
I no longer eagerly anticipate any "heroic verbal duals" when big named Left-wing celebrities come on his program, I expect what I see, a "civil" discourse, in which none of the most controversial topics come to be discussed, or if they are, that there will be little of that confrontational positing for which O'Reilly's is famous and to which his less well known guests are subjected.
O'Reilly's intolerance for "spin" evaporates and is replaced with a sort of cordial "agree to disagree" accord.
Afterall, the Great Bill O'Reilly can't afford to alienate the big-named guests who generate his high ratings...I mean ratings is what his program is all about.
Hey Bill! Here's a clue...Barack Obama is a Harvard educated lawyer. He knew what he was saying, he didn't "misspeak, this wasn't a simple slip of the tongue, it was an intentional statement, carefully considered, directed to a select audience, intended to elicit a desired reaction.
The only problem here is that his carefully considered and chosen words were recorded and leaked to the press. We know he believed in what he said, because he reaffirmed his belief in his first feckless defense of his statements. His claims of confused understanding and misinterpretation came only after that first bold claim of affirmation occurred...and bombed.
There can be no doubt as to what Barack Hussein Obama intended to say, we have his own words...and as we now know..."words do matter."
Long Live Our American Republic!!!
What do you think?
To leave your opinion click on the word "COMMENT(S)" below
posted by Will Malven at 4:47 AM
2 Comments:
Bill O'Reilly does have a presentation that does appear pompous at times. However, to ignore what he is saying is to ignore that the majority of voters do not research candidates they wait to be told about them.
Why do voters accept:
1. Clinton's history, mendacity, shamelessness, divisiveness
2. Obama's circle of friends, lack of experience, well spoken rhetorical generalities
3. McCain's RINO conservatism
Most neighborhood discussions evolve around the emotional conviction for a candidate. When asked to support their choice there is mostly a defiant "because I like them" or
1. Clinton is a woman!
2. Obama is the next black JFK!
3. McCain is what is left!
You as a reporter are falling into the emotional reporting trap. Venting is an easy release. Research and presenting the facts about the voting populous is not as satisfying because you could end up sounding pompous (also) to the very people you need to reach.
You, reporter, have just presented "The Spin".
Anonymous
Houston, Texas
Two problems with your argument:
First, this is an opinion blog. Meaning that I an not generally accessed as a source of news, but as a source of opinions about news stories and news items in the media. So I am not a "reporter" as such.
Second, the aim of this article is to present the blatant hypocrisy of Mr. O'Reilly in portraying Barack Obama as an elitist in his own program; then appearing on Greta van Susteren's program and exposing himself as being equally elitist as his prior target.
O'Reilly paints with a very broad brush in his portrayal of voters. While there are a large number of "sheep" in the fold who follow politics as they follow beauty contests, there is a large minority of individuals out here in fly-over America who fully comprehend what Barack Obama said and the intent of his statements.
If Mr. O'Reilly, as he claims, really does not know for certain what Barack Obama meant, then he is as ignorant and superficial as those he is denigrating, because Obama's words were very precise, spoken by an graduate of Harvard Law School, and were not some off-the-cuff remarks, rather prepared remarks.
Remember, "words have meaning."
To quote Barack Obama in his response to one of Hillary Clinton's attacks..."Just words?"
Martin Luther King..."Just words?"
O'Reilly is contemptible because he is Uriah Heep.
He is intellectually inconsistent in his criticism and his demeanor in dealing with guests with whom he disagrees, vacillating from being rude and domineering with some and obsequious to the point of becoming a sycophant with others (again Charlie Rangel comes to mind).
Lastly, O'Reilly is a fake. He has no more in common with the common man than do any of the other elitists of either party. Whatever "common touch" he may have once had has evaporated as his celbrity has grown.
Power corrupts...
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